Rise to Power
by Amazingusername
Summary: "Many moons ago, ShadowClan was weak and defenseless." The elder started, as he began grooming his paws. Stonepaw narrowed his eyes at that. "Even softer than ThunderClan." "What?" The fur on the dark tom's spine began bristle. "Quiet down now," Fogpelt rasped, his pale eyes glowed in amusement, "And listen closely, this is the story of ShadowClan's rise to power." (Ocs needed!)
1. Prologue

A dark gray apprentice held his head high as he walked. His tail was held in the air and his dark amber eyes shone with pride. He had not one, or two, but three birds clamped firmly in his jaws.

Soon the pine trees clustering his vision disappeared, leaving him standing in a muddy clearing. The bright Greenleaf sun shone down on his dark pelt. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

A couple fox-lengths away a dark ginger she-cat sat on the roots of a tree, resting in its shade, and casually washing her paws with swift delicate strokes. The apprentice trotted up to her and dropped his catch at her paws, feeling fierce pride washing over his pelt.

The she-cat looked up from her grooming at the apprentice. The younger cat met her gaze squarely, her eyes were bright blue like the sky above them.

"Well done, Stonepaw." She meowed, her voice was rich with pride and warmth.

"Thank you Redpelt." Stonepaw meowed, dipping his head respectfully. He felt a shiver of delight traveling up his spine. He was going to become a warrior of ShadowClan!

 _A warrior!_

"I will speak to Spottedstar about your ceremony," Redpelt meowed, her voice becoming brisk, then her gaze hardened, like she was preparing herself for something, "While I do that, I need you to go speak to Fogpelt."

 _Fogpelt?!_

A cold stone sat in his stomach, Stonepaw's eagerness disappeared like a dawn mist under the sun. He swallowed awkwardly, his amber gaze dropping to his paws. "Okay…"

"This is important Stonepaw." Redpelt's voice was stern, "Just tell him I sent you."

The apprentice felt a sudden flash of hot anger, then one of panic. Had he done something wrong? Was the catch not good enough? Why would Redpelt make him go visit the elder?

"Go, now."

Stonepaw whirled around, a frustrated hiss escaping from his lips as he plunged back into the pine trees. He felt dry pine needles being crushed with each step, and an occasional low branch brushing his dark pelt as he walked- no, stormed to camp.

 _What did I do wrong?_

The apprentice took a deep breath as he waked through the thicket entrance.

The sight of his camp greeted him, sheltered and familiar, but Stonepaw was in no mood to enjoy it, he headed straight for the elder's den, ignoring the other apprentices, specifically the ones asking him how his assessment went.

The dark gray tom forced himself into the elder's den, his mood as sour as crowfood.

Fogpelt, ShadowClan's only elder at the moment, was lying stomach down on his nest, his eyes closed.

The elder had a scruffy, knotted gray and white pelt, lacking luster and anything that hinted at youth, he looked like he had a literal pelt of fog.

Fogpelt's eyes opened, revealing them to be a pale, soft green color, which at one point. Stonepaw guessed, would have been as bright as young grass.

"Stonepaw." He greeted in a wheezing voice as he sat up, he was practically a mountain of gray and white fur, moving after a hundred moons of sleeping. "Did Redpelt send you?"

"Yes." He mumbled crossly, sitting down and curling his tail neatly over his paws. _I can't believe this._

"Good." Fogpelt's voice was as dry as hard, cracked earth. "I have a story to tell you."

Stonepaw felt a surge of annoyance, and bit back a probably offensive retort. _Did Redpelt make me come here to listen to a dumb story?_

"Many, many, moons ago, ShadowClan was weak and defenseless." The elder started, as he drew his tongue over his paw. Stonepaw narrowed his eyes at that. _He must have bees in his brain. ShadowClan is powerful._ "Even softer than ThunderClan."

"What?!" The fur on Stonepaw's spine began to rise.

Fogpelt rumbled a deep purr, "Hard to believe isn't it?"

"That's not possible!" The apprentice could hardly believe his ears. _He DOES have bees in his brains!_

"Quiet down now," Fogpelt rasped, his pale eyes seemed to glow in amusement, "And listen closely, this is the story of ShadowClan's rise to power."

 **Hello! Thank you so much for reading, so this idea has been moving around in my head for a while, and I finally decided to write it out. This story will set way back when SkyClan still existed. While I will be using some real characters shown in the book, I will need OCs! If you would like your character in this story, please review, telling me your character's name, gender, personality, appearance, pelt, eye color, etc., and the clan he or she is in! (You could do more than one OC) if you there is anything else that's special about them, feel free to mention that too. Oh, but you cannot add medicine cats, leaders or deputies. Those are already decided. There will be a main character in each Clan, (Including Sky) so your character is bound to show up, whether speaking or hunting. Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Rise to Power: Chapter 1**

Finchflight charged head first toward the RiverClan warrior, her teeth bared and claws flashing. Her opponent gave a yowl of surprise, but it was drowned away in the sounds of battle.  
 _For ShadowClan!_  
The she-cat's fangs pierced into her enemy's flesh, and the taste of metallic and sour blood flooded her tongue. The ShadowClan warrior then jumped away quickly as the RiverClan warrior began thrashing. With her small size, she knew she could be easily thrown off.  
"Fox-heart!" Her foe snarled as Finchflight puffed up her tortoiseshell and white fur slightly.  
"It must be tougher for you than," The ShadowClan warrior hissed tauntingly, she felt fire flowing through her veins. "At least fox-hearts know how to fight!"  
The RiverClan warrior's brown and bloodstained pelt began to bristle, and her amber eyes flashed with fury. "I'll show you fighting!"  
Her opponent reared up, lashing her dark tipped tail heatedly. Finchflight leapt away just in time to avoid being squashed.  
"Coward!" The brown she-cat yowled.  
The tortoiseshell smirked, "I prefer calling it a strategy," she meowed smoothly with a flick of her tail.  
Without a second thought the ShadowClan warrior slammed into her opponent, digging her claws deeply into her opponent's shoulders, through the fur and into her flesh, very effectively drawing blood.  
The brown cat made no sound, but began jerking left and right, thrashing wildly to try to dislodge the smaller cat.  
Finchflight grit her teeth, her pale emerald eyes narrowing into sharp slits. It was taking a lot of her strength just to hold on.  
In the corner of her eye, she saw a yellow and blackish blur, then the next thing she knew, something powerful slammed into her, sending her flying through the air, her claws ripped out from the RiverClan warrior's shoulder. She hit the ground with a gasp, the wind knocked out of her.  
 _Mouse-dung_! Finchflight though, struggling to get back up on her shaky paws _. TWO RiverClan warriors?_  
"Are you alright Owltail?" The second RiverClan warrior meowed to the first.  
 _Owltail! That's the brown she-cats name!_  
Finchflight heaved herself up to her paws, to look at the second RiverClan warrior.  
It was a she-cat with light yellow fur that was dappled with black, and she was glaring at the ShadowClan warrior with fierce blue eyes. She looks like a powerful fighter. _How do I fight both of them?_  
"I'm fine now, thanks Leopardstream." Owltail meowed, flashing a sneering grin at Finchflight that showed all her teeth. _Idiot fish-face!_  
The tortoiseshell hissed loudly, arching her back, and bracing herself for the both of them. Then a familiar yowl caught her attention. "Finchflight!"  
In a blur of white, a cat was standing next to her. "Do you need help?"  
"Echostep!" Finchflight felt a burst of relief. "I would be very grateful if you could."  
Echostep nodded, her thick white fur bristling slightly, her eyes, one blue and one green, shone brightly with a warrior's spirit. Finchflight found herself wishing she had those eyes.  
"Great," Owltail hissed, "A fox-heart was enough, but a half-faced freak to?"  
"Hey!" Finchflight yowled, she felt fury pulsing through her veins, "you take that back!"  
The tortoiseshell hardly ever noticed it, but Echostep had deep, ugly scars on the right of her face. "A warrior's spirit is what counts!" Finchflight hurled herself at Owltail with every ounce of strength she had. Nearby, she heard one of her clanmate and Leopardstream snarling as they met in battle.  
The Shadow and RiverClan warrior fought savagely, biting, kicking and scratching.  
"Must be tougher for you then!" Owltail gasped out as she raked her thorn sharp claws across the tortoiseshell's cheek, "You don't have a warrior's spirit!"  
Finchflight screeched furiously, kicking out and landing a blow on her opponent's already bleeding flank. "Must be even tougher for you!" She panted, "You don't have a warrior's spirit or looks!"  
Claws met her shoulder in response.  
They continued fighting like this for a while, with the ShadowClan's warrior's wounds throbbing painfully, but her pride even more so.  
"ShadowClan!"  
Finchflight thrust herself away from the fight with Owltail as she heard her deputy's voice carry clearly through the air.  
"Retreat! Shadowstar is dead!  
The tortoiseshell forced her jaw not to drop, she felt an icy shiver travel down her spine. Shadowstar was dead?  
Behind her, she heard Owltail's cry of delight, and forced herself not to go and give the fish-face a well-deserved claw to the face. Finchflight turned and nodded to Echostep, her friend had also broken away from Leopardstream. When the white she-cat nodded back, they both took off to join their clan-mates.  
"That's right you frog-munchers!" Owltail's voice was arrogant and loud, "run for your lives!"  
Finchflight grit her teeth so hard she feared they would crack. _Our leader just died! Does she have any respect for ShadowClan?  
_ As mocking laughter sounded from the RiverClan warriors, the she-cat came to the conclusion they probably didn't.  
"Finchflight!"  
The tortoiseshell turned her head around slightly to see a calico run up to her. "Leaffall!"  
The calico wove her way through the crowd toward Finchflight, and when she saw her, her voice became frantic, "Oooh! Look at you! You're bleeding!"  
She then paused to give the tortoiseshell a lick on the shoulder. "I'm fine," Finchflight meowed softly, feeling pleased at the attention, yet slightly embarrassed, "you don't have to worry."  
"There's nothing wrong with a mother worrying for her kit," Leaffall's amber eyes glowed with fierce pride and love, "no matter how grown up her kit is."  
A couple heart beats of tender moment passed between the mother and daughter before Leaffall's name was called, and she turned and nodded at her daughter before disappearing in the sea of pelts.  
A couple tail-lengths ahead, Finchflight spotted the clan deputy, Dawnheart, and a warrior hauling their leader's corpse with them.  
 _Shadowstar!_  
The tortoiseshell warrior felt a sharp stab of grief. The leader was powerful and cunning, without her, the clan would be much weaker.  
The rest of the walk was long and gloomy, with injured pride and heavy defeat clinging to every cat's pelts like stubborn burrs.  
As they arrived at camp, Dawnheart gently put down Shadowstar's limp body on the clearing, her thick black fur was knotted and bloodstained. The camp atmosphere was heavy with misery and grief.  
 _Well, I'm not doing much help by just standing here._  
Finchflight spun around and began walking to the direction of the medicine cats den.  
She passed by the nursery and saw three kits sitting and staring at Shadowstar's body like baby owls. "Did we win?" The smallest one asked in a small and confused voice. The tortoiseshell sped up her pace, her heart throbbing painfully. _I should have fought harder!_  
 _"That's right, frog-munchers!" Owltail's voice was arrogant and loud, "Run for your lives!"_  
A bitter growl left Finchflight's lips at the memory.  
"Easy there!" A voice called at her, "the medicine cat is for healing!"  
The tortoiseshell blinked in surprise. "Huh, Pebbleheart?" She was already standing in the medicine cats den. _When did I get here?_  
"Take a seat," The dark gray tabby pointed to an empty nest with his tail, "You're the first cat to walk in."  
"Thank you!" Finchflight meowed gratefully, she was bleeding, sore and most definitely very exhausted. Sitting down sounded like a gift from StarClan itself. Pebbleheart blinked his dark yellow eyes in a friendly manner, "Your welcome."  
The she-cat settled down, sighing in relief, now her paws didn't have to carry her weight. Almost immediately after she sat down, something thick, cold and sticky splashed down at her back. The tortoiseshell gave a startled hiss.  
"Relax," Pebbleheart's meow was amused, "It's just comfrey and dock poultice."  
"Oh, right," Finchflight rested her head on her paws, "sorry."

The medicine cat said nothing, but his nimble paws worked swiftly and effectively, and after a couple heart-beats she felt something light and sticky being placed on her tortoiseshell pelt.

 _Cobwebs I bet._

"Pebbleheart," the warrior blurted, "Shadowstar is dead."

"I know," the dark tabby's pelt was solemn, "but Dawnheart will make a great leader."

Finchflight tilted her head slightly to glance outside, the deputy was crouched over their late leader's body, her brilliant green eyes pooling with grief. Her soft cream-brown pelt hung delicately on her skin.

"I know she's cunning and brilliant," the tortoiseshell and white cat closed her pale emerald eyes, "but…I'm worried she won't be a strong leader."

"She doesn't have to be strong to be a good leader," Pebbleheart's voice was gentle as he spread on cobwebs on her pelt, "She's fair and wise, and is our best chance at peace."

 _Peace?_

Finchflight surprised herself at the burst of delight she felt at his words. _Peace!_ No more wars and no more blood-shed! Her eyes sprung open again to stare that Dawnheart.

 _She might be our chance at peace._

Her mind squeezed the hope she had tightly, and whispered a prayer to StarClan as her eyes drifted shut once more.

" _Please…StarClan grant us this peace…"_

 **Thank you so much BlacKatBlacKat for proof-reading the story! It looks SO much better! I hope you enjoyed it, and I will be accepting OCs until the 6** **th** **chapter is up. When it is up I will no longer be accepting them!**


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